The author a doctor with much experience in dealing with patients in intensive care and patients who are terminally ill addresses the issue of how we define death and indeed life at an age when progress in medical science keeps people alive longer than ever before until in some instances it is hard to know when death is completed the paradox is that although we live longer now the drawn out experience of death is in many respects much worse than it used to be and whereas in the past . There is no more universal truth in life than death no matter who you are it is certain that one day you will die but the mechanics and understanding of that experience will differ greatly in todays modern age dr haider warraich is a young and brilliant new voice in the conversation about death and dying started by dr sherwin nulands classic how we die reflections. Some chapters such as how life and death were prolonged are historical describing changes in inoculations living conditions and medical care that extended the human life span but also changes in dying now often prolonged by technology another chapter how we learned not to resuscitate relates how cpr initially lauded and popularized is now widely understood as futile care especially in older people warraich discusses various attempts to define death brain based . Modern death how medicine changed the end of life user review publishers weekly warraich a physician writer and clinical researcher thoughtfully investigates the often alarming realities of death in early 21st century america for many it will be a drawn out slow burn from read full review. Haider warraichs recent book modern death how medicine changed the end of life 1 is timely at a time when we strive for simple answers to complex questions often utter the phrase i have an app for that and condense our thoughts into a 140 character bite warraich a cardiovascular fellow at duke engages a complex topic what does death look like in our modern medical world he weaves his personal and clinical stories together with threads of history law ethics and